600 bodies found in Mazar-i-Sharif

RED Cross workers found up to 600 bodies in Mazar-i-Sharif after it was abandoned by the Taliban, but cannot say how they died.

Olivier Durr, head of operations for central and south Asia for the International Committee of the Red Cross, today said 400 to 600 bodies were found in the city after the Taliban left on November 9.

"But we cannot say these people had been brutally executed or were the result of fighting. Even before our expatriate staff entered (the city) our Afghan colleagues started to collect and bury quite a number of bodies," Durr said. He said 180 bodies had already been buried.

Reports have circulated of widespread killings in Mazar-i-Sharif, but there has been no confirmation. The Pakistani government spoke of "massacres" in the city in urging the international community to avoid reprisal killings in the northern city of Kunduz, where thousands of Taliban troops are under siege.

A UN spokesman said around 100 young Taliban recruits had died in a school in Mazar-i-Sharif the day after victorious Northern Alliance forces moved into the city.